


Ardyn stuck in a time loop

by Yandere_Shoujo



Series: FFXV Dreamwidth Prompts [13]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 06:58:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10714506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yandere_Shoujo/pseuds/Yandere_Shoujo
Summary: Being immortal is even harder when you're forced to repeat the same thing over and over. Two thousand years of spite was one thing, waking up to the same day was another.





	Ardyn stuck in a time loop

**Author's Note:**

> *Squiggly voice* We have returned...

Save Slot 2:

Ardyn awoke sluggishly to sunlight threatening to burn his eyes out and mumbled chatter all around him. Bleary eyed, he blinked and looked around.

Blue, tan, green, and sunlight.

Brain finally turning itself on, he realized it was Galdin Quay. To his left was a man sharing the bench, pliers in one hand and a single jeweled earring in the other.

He blinked and looked around again. Yes, it was indeed Galdin Quay, he was staring at the human man he faintly recalled being a reporter, and all too familiar voices drifted from the cook’s station.

With a start Ardyn jolted to his feet and looked to the board announcing the lack of ships set for Altissia. If the date was anything to go by, this was the first time he’d met the Crown Prince in person.

“What sorcery is this?” he mumbled to himself. His last memories replayed with sharp clarity over his eyes. The darkened sky, an aged boy claiming to be king, and the creeping darkness of Etro’s embrace.

“Aww what? No boats?” a high pitched whine of a voice Ardyn could identify as Prompto.

What on Eos happened?

Ardyn turned, a scowl set firmly in place. There Noctis was again, young and alive and looking just as sleepy and apathetic as ever.

Maybe he’d wound up in some kind of abstract hell.

The group looked surprised when Ardyn approached at a fast pace, long legs making his strides cover as much ground as he could. The biggest of the group stood in front of the Prince defensively and Ardyn barely cast a second glance as he jabbed his dagger into his gut. The other two summoned their weapons but weren’t fast enough to stop him as he removed the blade and jammed it right into Noctis’ chest.

* * *

 

Save Slot 3:

Ardyn awoke sluggishly to sunlight threatening to burn his eyes out and mumbled chatter all around him. Bleary eyed, he blinked and looked around.

Blue…

Ardyn was outright frowning now. In all his two thousand years of technically living, he had never dreaded waking up another day as he did now. Instead of getting up, he sat and watched the man next to him add a jewel connected by a hoop onto the earring in his hand. The pliers curled and neatly re-formed a circle after connecting the jewel to the main piece and the man held out the earring from afar to admire it. Upon hearing the Prince and his entourage’s voices he quickly packed up the tools in his lap in a neat container and shoved them in his pocket. A sly grin showed bare teeth as he looked past Ardyn to see the group walk to the docking area.

This time, Ardyn didn’t interfere, choosing to sit and watch the group read the notices by themselves, and be heckled by the reporter. Ardyn was aware that each of them spared him a curious look, but he said nothing and stared out at the shining, sparkling sea.

He remained in that same spot the entire day and night- not requiring sleep or food. A nervous attendant attempted to coax him into leaving while doing his best to not say the homeless were not welcome with, “E-excuse me. Sir. I- we on staff would like to know if you had a-er reservation? There isn’t any loitering here, sir.”

Ardyn looked at the employees face for three silent seconds, pulled out several hundred gils worth in ornate coins, and stacked them neatly into his forcefully pulled forward hands.

“I rather like it here along the sea.”

The employee looked down to the stack of old fashioned yet entirely valid coins with wide eyes and scurried off to the entrance to the hotel.

Morning sunlight had come and Ardyn pulled his hat over his eyes, letting the next day come crawling from the horizon.

To his dismay, he was greeted with the reporter returning to his seat, the formerly finished earring back to separate pieces of a jewel, main piece, and unused chain link hoops.

“Aww what? No boats?” a high pitched whine of a voice Ardyn could identify as Prompto.

Ardyn grit his teeth and stood. He could feel the prince stare at him curiously as he stormed past the group and hopefully somewhere far away.

* * *

 

Save Slot 6:

Ardyn leaned back against the small grocer stand and watched as the former King’s Regalia pulled into the gas station. The others went in different directions after exiting the car and Ardyn, for a moment, really wanted to set fire to the gas pump. Well, he couldn’t say his curiosity never got the better of him.

As black smoke and debris shot into the air, Ardyn took some small satisfaction in the act.

* * *

 

Save Slot 10:

“I’m afraid you’re out of luck…” Ardyn greeted.

Maybe- just, maybe…

Maybe if Ardyn played this never ending nightmare out- he would be free.

“A man of no consequence.” Was his farewell, and he began to walk away.

The Empire was just as he left it. Every ranking officer under his thumb except the revered mercenary and brother of the Oracle, sporting his prosthetic arm like a bad sore.

A day passed, then several.

It was when they met once again in Lestallum that Ardyn chose to see what would happen if their dear Prompto had himself exposed. Ardyn once relied on the anguish and betrayal of the Prince’s friend being a product of his enemy.

All it took was a surprise MT attack and Ardyn disguising himself as one of the enemy, taking an axe, and cutting the leather strap hiding the other’s barcode.

To Ardyn’s surprise, the reveal hadn’t gone so well as the big one rounded on him. Ardyn watched the heated yelling from afar as he’d managed to slip away unnoticed.

Waking up in Galdin Quay moments later was almost worth it.

* * *

 

Save Slot 19:

Ardyn could not physically get tired. That would require his muscles to be pushed, which could not happen given that he’d just regenerate any harm to his person in a wisp of heavy black smoke.

He was mentally tired. Killing the Prince did nothing, nor did any form of sabotage to his journey that he didn’t do the first time.

“Oh Prince! Your bride awaits!” he called over the howling winds surrounding Leviathan.

The Oracle coughed and gasped from water and the wound now in her stomach. It was interesting at least, seeing Noctis react differently each time he’d stabbed her. An MT soldier, his trusted Advisor, the dragoon mercenary, even Ravus. What wasn’t amusing was blinking to sunshine and a sapphire ocean right after.

Well, that was until he got to the train to Tenebrae.

Ardyn was fully aware of Noctis and his Shield’s relationship after the ordeal. Ardyn had to try his best from laughing as the two practically tried to kill each other, damaging the train car and injuring civilians in the cross fire of fists and staggering with every jolt and shake of the cart. The blonde looked as though he was on the verge of tears and the ever silent adviser had been infuriated. The ensuing chaos of daemon attacks on top of an orchestrated MT ambush within the confines of the mountain tunnel was likely the best Ardyn had felt in many, many years.

* * *

 

Save Slot 35:

If Ardyn had been told that in two thousand years, he’d befriend one of the offspring of the man who betrayed him, he’d have laughed and tried his best to burn the world black much faster.

Yet there he was, sharing a can of Ebony coffee at the front of a rental caravan with said offspring’s comrade and trading names of favorite composers of music.

For the first time he hadn’t tried to gut, maim, or burn anyone and staved off the Empire’s advances. He hadn’t grown any sort of affection for the boy, but Ignis was the most tolerable of the entire party. The Shield was still wary around him, as a Shield should be. But the others accepted him with reluctant arms.

Ardyn was surprised the world didn’t blink back to the accursed ocean view when he watched the Oracle summon Leviathan and not be impaled by his knife…

The memory of her holding his hand, trying to heal him came to mind.

Ardyn watched from a half destroyed patio of a restaurant as the Prince clumsily warped around trying and failing to get the Hydrean to yield.

He lacked the resolve and power the Oracle’s final blessing yielded him.

The boy fell, energy spent and Leviathan raged.

When Ardyn awoke on the bench, he was relieved to know that he had the pleasure of gutting the woman one more time.

* * *

 

Save Slot 50:

There were days when Ardyn wished he could sleep. He could rest his mind by closing his eyes, laying on his back, and relaxing. It didn’t mean he was actually slumbering, but with no sound but the sloshing of waves or nature- he could pretend.

Today was just that day. He sat on the bench, and just listened with his eyes closed. Days faded in and out in repetition. With every slip up, Ardyn was out of ideas and contemplated as time looped over and over.

* * *

 

Save Slot 99:

“This time… you can rest in peace.”

Ardyn chuckled at his words as he lay on the wet pavement. He’d lost again, and kept his eyes open this time to look at the Prince now King’s face. He took in his pain, tiredness, and hardened eyes.

“I don’t believe you.” Ardyn chuckled.

His gaze shifted to the Ring of the Lucii on his finger and he reached out, slowly. The other did not move and Ardyn found himself just out of reach.

“Do a dying man a favor will you? Use the ring.”

Noctis raised an eyebrow.

“I think the answer I’ve been looking for all this time has been right in front of me. Use the ring, and… truly end me.”

Ardyn lay back, relaxed himself, and fell into his pretend sleep. Etro whispered in his ear and he could feel his body slipping into nothing. Any light from behind his eyelids faded away and he became tired.

This time, his sleeping actually felt real.

**Author's Note:**

> Angry Author’s Rant Corner: Phew wading through all that hot, liquid sewage was terrible! But now I finally reached the en- Round 2: Electric Boogaloo
> 
> [ANGRY MOTH NOISES]
> 
> Will someone let me know when asking for OOC fetishes is banned plz? Gawd!


End file.
